Rescuers have combed through fields of wreckage after a tornado outbreak roared across the middle of the US, leaving dozens dead and communities in despair.
A twister carved a track that could rival the longest on record as the storm front smashed apart a candle factory, crushed a nursing home and flattened an Amazon distribution centre.
“I pray that there will be another rescue. I pray that there will be another one or two,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said, as crews sifted through the wreckage of the candle factory in Mayfield, where 110 people were working when the storm hit. Forty of them were rescued.
“We had to, at times, crawl over casualties to get to live victims,” said Jeremy Creason, the city’s fire chief and emergencies director.
In Kentucky alone, 22 were confirmed dead by late Saturday, including 11 in and around Bowling Green. But Beshear said upwards of 70 may have been killed when a twister touched down for more than 320 kilometres in his state and that the number of deaths could eventually exceed 100 across 10 or more counties.
The death toll of 36 across five states includes six people in Illinois where an Amazon facility was hit, four in Tennessee, two in Arkansas where a nursing home was destroyed, and two in Missouri.
If early reports are confirmed, the twister “will likely go down perhaps as one of the longest track violent tornadoes in United States history”, said Victor Genzini, a researcher on extreme weather at Northern Illinois University.
The longest tornado on record, in March 1925, tracked for about 355km through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. But Genzini said this twister may have touched down for nearly 400km.
The storm was all the more remarkable because it came in December, when normally colder weather limits tornadoes, he said.
Debris from destroyed buildings and shredded trees covered the ground in Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 in western Kentucky.
Twisted metal sheeting, downed power lines and wrecked vehicles lined the streets. Windows and roofs were blown off the buildings that were still standing.
Kentucky State Trooper Sarah Burgess said rescue crews were using heavy equipment to move rubble at the candle factory. Coroners were called to the scene and bodies were recovered, but she didn’t know how many.
Rescue efforts were complicated because Mayfield’s main fire station and emergency services hub were also hit by the tornado, Creason said.
President Joe Biden approved an emergency disaster declaration for Kentucky on Saturday and pledged to support the affected states.
Six people were killed in the collapse of the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, with another injured worker airlifted to a hospital, fire Chief James Whiteford said.
Investigators searched the rubble throughout the day for additional victims and 45 people survived, Whiteford said.
Authorities were uncertain on Saturday evening whether anyone was still unaccounted because workers were in the midst of a shift change when it was struck by the tornado about 8.30pm on Friday.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson’s office said the storms killed at least two people in the state and initial assessments indicate they destroyed majorly damaged hundreds of homes and buildings.
Meteorologists haven’t determined whether the storm spawned a single tornado or multiple tornadoes, he said.
In Arkansas, a tornado struck a nursing home in Monette, killing one and trapping 20 people inside as the building collapsed, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day told The Associated Press.
Another person died when the storm hit a Dollar General store in nearby Leachville.
Four storm-related deaths were confirmed in northwestern Tennessee.
AAP
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